December 29, 2003
My Neighborhood
My neighborhood is an ugly house magnet. Here's our house:
It doesn't look too bad, except for the stain on the front which came from some stupid kids who threw an egg at our house. (Actually, the stain came from us trying to clean off the egg; I'm not sure which is the "natural" color for the house)
Anyway, one neighbor painted their house this hideous barn red, and painted their shed to match it:
And our other neighbors have this bright orange/yellow thing going:
Suzy doesn't care; this is her house.
Quote from the Iran story
What once was his home was a flattened pile of rubble and dust. He pointed to where the bedrooms should have been, seemingly resigned that none of his three teenage children or his wife would be found alive.
He fainted as he spotted a slender hand protruding from a red pyjama sleeve in the debris.
Behind him, the body of a girl in her teens was excavated and quickly covered with a blanket. Then the bodies of his sons and a woman in her 40s were found.
No one was alive.
The Iran Earthquake
I'm sure everyone has heard by now about the earthquake in Iran that's killed over twenty thousand people, injured tens of thousands more, and left over a hundred thousand homeless. Please, consider donating to the Red Cross to help our Iranian neighbors.
December 26, 2003
Odd ad
So, I was blogsurfing when I should have been sleeping, and I came across one of those text banner ads like the one about. This one, advertising a razor, said, "Men's groomer trims hair anywhere. Not in stores!"
Well, duh. You've got to charge up the batteries at home first.
December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas!!
Despite what I wrote below, I do like Christmas in general. I like opening presents, for one thing. One of my best presents this year was a digital camera, a Vivitar 3746. Below are two examples of the pictures it takes:
My brother, Jason, showing off his present.
My dog, in canine majesty.
December 24, 2003
Another pet peeve
The people who insist that it's "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays." Tell people that you know "Merry Christmas". OTOH, if you're working retail/fast food, tell them "Happy Holidays" instead, because you don't know what, if any, holiday they're celebrating. This doesn't come from a desire to expunge Christ from society; it's simply deference to other parts of American culture, whether Jewish or African (or wherever Kwanzaa came from). I mean, it would bug me if I was constantly being told to have a great Kwanzaa. Why purposefully offend or bother someone?
Christmas Pet Peeves
There are two phrases that ought to be expunged from the English Christmas-time vocabulary. First: "The True Meaning of Christmas" and Second: "Jesus is the reason for the season." Not that these are inherently bad phrases; they're just horrible cliches. And, really, you hear things like this on bad TV specials, where I am extemely unlikely to be forming my beliefs about Christmas's meaning (the former), and in sermon-esque speeches and plays, which is probably saying something I already believe (the latter).
Also: Quit complaining about how commercialized (read: evil) Christmas has become. I heard one guy say that tonight, then talk about how the spirit of Christmas (should that be the third banned phrase?) is the spirit of giving. Well, OK then. To give something, you have to have it first, right? And if you have something, chances are you bought it, right? *Gasp*!!! You engaged in commercial activity! If you're going to complain about the commercialization of Christmas, then don't buy Christmas gifts.
December 23, 2003
Christian Music
I imagine that people who don't go to BJU wonder what kind of music the students listen to, since they can't listen to genres like rock, techno, R&B (What is R&B anyways?, jazz, rap, or country (or Contemporary Christian Music, which is any of the above but with Christian words) Personally, I like Brian Pinner's Cantate Domino, althought it's not one of the more popular CD's, as well as virtually anything that Ron Hamilton writes outside of his Patch the Pirate stuff. Also, BJU has its own studio, SoundForth, which produces some pretty good CD's too. Refuge is one of their best.
Holiday Visitors
I like Christmas-time, if only for the visitors. Firstly, my Grandmother from Idaho is staying for a week and a half. I don't know her very well, unfortunately (which makes Christmas shopping difficult); she suffers from some pretty severe hearing loss (although we're experimenting with different kinds of hearing aids) and from general getting old. She's also very quiet; she likes to read a lot, and she has done a lot of that here.
Secondly, there are a couple of friends from high school that go to my church but (unfortunately) go to Pensacola Christian College. I would advise any BJU student who thinks that the rules are restrictive here to go to PCC for a semester. For example, they have no email at all, and cell phones must only be used in cars. While BJU students can go to a Sunday evening service at a local church, PCC students have to go to their own chapel services both morning and evening. And so on. It's also several hours away from the Greenville/Spartanburg area, which means (except for Christmas time and part of the summer) I never get to see them!
Which is really sad, because they really are two of my best friends, ever. Very friendly, good-natured (for the most part), and easy to talk to. Unfortunately, they have to go back come mid-January. So, I enjoy it while it lasts.
December 19, 2003
Final Finals Update
I took my last two finals yesterday in Microeconomics and Management; I scored a 91 on the former and a 92 on the latter. Needless to say, I was much pleased. It also turns out that I was at the top of my class for both Accounting and Management. Yay!!!
December 16, 2003
Finals Update
Took my Accounting and Bible finals today. Like yesterday, one was cumulative (Accounting) and the other was just like another test (Life and Ministry of Christ). I think I did pretty well on the Acct. final. It was extremely long, though; I barely finished it. And I got a nigh-perfect score on my L&MoChrist. I am much pleased.
No finals tomorrow, thankfully. Which means I'm wasting time doing things like downloading Winamp 5, which just came out.
December 15, 2003
Finals Update
This is finals week here at BJU. Pretty much everybody can be seen studying around here, frantically cramming for the next day's tests. I just had my Expository Writing test (94%, thanks for asking) and my American Literature test (Stupid essay question; I'll let you know). That was my final literature class. Ever. ::happy dance:: Both of my classes that most needed a good grade are done now.
Tomorrow I've got Accounting and The Life and Ministry of Christ. Wednesday's free, then it's Management (at 7:40(!!!) in the morning) and Microeconomics. We'll see how everything pans out.
December 12, 2003
English
Speaking of English: I had my last English Literature lecture ever on thursday. Even if I fail the final exam and the big paper (worth something like 20% of the grade), I'll still have enough to pass. (Not do well, necessarily, but pass.)
Thank goodness.
Update: Bob Jones Academy Fire
I talked to my "contact" a couple days ago regarding the fire at Bob Jones Academy. It turned out that, yes, her sister had been holding the phosporus (with tongs), and that it had caught fire, but it was more like a sparkler than like an "explosion." Apparently it had been out of some sort of oil for too long, and then it reacted with the air.
Still, I imagine that must have been an interesting (and fun!) English class.
December 09, 2003
More Christmas Stuff
One of these would be pretty cool, but even with this ridiculously low price (compared to other stores), it's still overpriced, IMHO. That's why it's on the Christmas List.
I want one of these for Christmas...
The Rubber Band Machine Gun. 144 rubber bands per load. I want to mount one of these in my convertible. That'd be cool....
December 06, 2003
My Day
My day today was centered around two things: The first was my church's choir Christmas cantata practice. It's not bad; just really, really high on the tenor part especially. (Think several measures where the notes don't drop below an F. Above Middle C. Occasionally hitting a G. Firmly outside the masculine zone, but after weeks of practice, I can hit them.) It has some really weird songs, but they get easier, and more natural sounding, with practice.
This was the first practice with the "reader's theatre" portion of the script and the choir portion practicing at the same time. My brother plays the part of the main character's best friend in child-/early adult-hood who dies when the main character drinks and drives. He did really good in practice; I'm looking forward to seeing how he does on the play
The other big thing today was work at Chick-fil-A, from 3:00-close (10:45 today). At 5.25 an hour, that comes to... just over $40. I really need to look for another job. It's interesting, because I'm taking this management class at Bob Jones, and just about everything the book says to do, my Chick-fil-A doesn't. Which basically means that it's a really lousy place to work, even though it seems to make enough money to stay in business.
Scrappleface on Cincinnati
RTWT. Hilarious. And vaguely familiar.
Sigh..
So, I do a GoogleNews search on Bob Jones. The top headline is from a parody news site, once again mocking policies BJU dropped three years ago.
It's sad how some people don't bother to check the facts, both in this specific instance and in the more general sense of race-bashing BJU. I hate how Bob Jones University has become a byword for intolerance and discrimination by ignorant politicians who have never bothered to come see this place for themselves.
I swear, Dr. Bob ought to look into libel suits from all the people who have wrongly accused us of racial discrimination.
December 05, 2003
Bob Jones Academy Fire
Since I am the Blogosphere's Bob Jones corespondant, I feel a need to comment on this story involving the Bob Jones Academy.
Before anyone can claim that Bob Jones Academy staff were being stupid or unsafe:
Now, this story is a little different from what I heard. One of my friends, whose name I will not disclose, was told by a couple of girls in the snack shop that her sister had been holding the piece of phosphorus in English and that it had "exploded," which forced the academy to shut down for a couple of hours.
Hmm... Is this yet another example of the failures of the mainstream media, or is it just a case of exaggeration on the part of a couple of high school girls? I will email my friend and find out what really happened! Stay tuned.
Next Semester Classes
I think I've got my class schedule put together for next semester. At least, I better have, since I got my advisor to sign off on it. Anyway, next semester I'm taking:
Accounting II: (This time it's not Accounting I!)
Mathemathics of Finance: I should have taken this this semester. It would have simplified things a lot in my future planning. Oops. I heard it's tough, but I also heard that Accounting 101 was tough, and I'm pulling a 96%, ranked at the top of my class.
Principles of Marketing: This sounds like fun, I think. It looks like the kind of class that could be really boring, if the teacher isn't any good.
Investment Portfolio Management: I needed a finance elective, and this one has no prerequisite courses, and the subject currently interests me.
Public Relations: Part of my minor, and one of my two psychology courses that I have to take. As part of that whole "liberal arts" thing, I have to take two psychology or two philosophy courses. I took General Psychology last year (an utter waste of time), so this will be my final psych course. I hope.
And, either The Life and Ministry of Paul or Bible Geography as my Bible course. I haven't quite decided which one yet. Neither really piques my interest, but they're the only ones that fit in my schedule. I really wanted to take Bible Prophecy, but oh well. Prophecy is one of those really ambiguous subjects anyway; I'd probably get offended at someone presenting his view as the Gospel Truth (tm), rather than his own interpretation. I know in Geography there's no verse memorization, and my Dad said it was really good. But that was some 20 years ago. Hmm. It's also not a 12 o'clock class, and the L&Mo'Paul is. We'll see...
No Cheddar X This Week
Cheddar X's idea this week is less fun than usual. I don't know bands/songs at all. I'm from Bob Jones, remember?
Oh, I get it now
Oh, so the articles you want to permalink have to actually have titles... Oops.